| More on this story from a few days ago. |
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
on Tuesday after a lone gunman went on an overnight shooting spree, killing four security personnel before blowing himself up in an apartment in a residential building.
The rare shooting, in which the gunman used a cycle of violence to move around, opening fire on police and army vehicles, shook the predominantly Sunni Moslem coastal city on the eve of the Eidul Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramazan.
Interior Minister Raya El Hassan told news hounds that the gunman, identified as Abdul-Rahman Mabsout, is a former member of the bully boy Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group and now a "lone wolf." She said the situation was under control.
The shooting began late on Monday with Mabsout first firing at a branch of the Lebanese Central Bank, then driving around, shooting at police and later at an army vehicle, killing four.
With police in hot pursuit, opening fire and using tear gas, Mabsout then drove to a residential building, where he shot his way up the stairs and into an empty apartment on the fourth floor and barricaded himself inside.
An hours-long standoff ensued, culminating with security forces storming the apartment. Cornered, Mabsout detonated his explosives vest, killing himself instantly.
On Tuesday, there were multiple signs of battle. At least four civilian cars and one police car were heavily damaged, their windshields smashed and pocked by bullet holes.
Military police and forensics removed bullets from the street. Tear gas canisters were still on the ground.
The nine-floor apartment building where Mabsout died was shell pocked and the apartment itself partially destroyed.
The owner of the apartment said he and his family were not in the house when the gunman stormed the building, but that his flat was left largely destroyed by the kaboom. He said the attacker entered his building after shooting one person in the street.
"Thank God there was nobody in the house, and my door is not made of steel, it is a wooden door so I think he broke the door and he walked in," Kamal Ferri said. Mabsout is a former member of the IS group who fought with the bully boy movement in Syria. He were tossed into the calaboose when he returned to Leb in 2016 and was released a year later.
The Lebanese army announced earlier that it has increased security around the country because of the holiday, when people go out to celebrate.
Tripoli, which is Leb’s second largest city, has in the past seen festivities between rival groups that support or oppose the Syrian government of
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
. The city is also home to some holy warriors who fought against the Lebanese army in the past.
The bully boy Islamic State group and Al Qaeda-linked turbans have grabbed credit over the past years for attacks in different parts of Leb that killed dozens of people. Such attacks have been rare recently.